Congratulations to Our 2024 Grand Prize and First Place Winners!
NETrolyze, a novel immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), was named the $25,000 grand prize winner at a live finalist round held November 15 in New York. The first-in-class therapeutic injectable gel prevents the spread of TNBC, one of the most aggressive cancer types, enabling patients to avoid toxic chemotherapy and expensive treatments – potentially transforming their lives. Click here for the full list of 2024 winners. Also see the Top 100 highest scoring entries.
Special thanks to our esteemed panel of judges.
Help build a better tomorrow
Since Tech Briefs magazine launched the Create the Future Design contest in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovation, over 15,000 design ideas have been submitted by engineers, students, and entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries. Join the innovators who dared to dream big by entering your ideas today.
Read About Past Winners’ Success Stories
Special Report spotlights the eight top entries in 2023 as well as past winners whose ideas are now in the market, making a difference in the world.
Click here to read moreA ‘Create the Future’ Winner Featured on ‘Here’s an Idea’
Spinal cord injury affects 17,000 Americans and 700,000 people worldwide each year. A research team at NeuroPair, Inc. won the Grand Prize in the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest for a revolutionary approach to spinal cord repair. In this Here’s an Idea podcast episode, Dr. Johannes Dapprich, NeuroPair’s CEO and founder, discusses their groundbreaking approach that addresses a critical need in the medical field, offering a fast and minimally invasive solution to a long-standing problem.
Listen nowThank you from our Sponsors
“At COMSOL, we are very excited to recognize innovators and their important work this year. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Create the Future Design Contest, which is an excellent platform for designers to showcase their ideas and products in front of a worldwide audience. Best of luck to all participants!”
— Bernt Nilsson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, COMSOL, Inc.
“From our beginnings, Mouser has supported engineers, innovators and students. We are proud of our longstanding support for the Create the Future Design Contest and the many innovations it has inspired.”
— Kevin Hess, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mouser Electronics
contest
Contest
My entry to the Comsol/Nordson Contest would have to be my Hercules armored power and communications cabling system. I was approached by a BOMA executive asking for a design for an emergency communications system.
This is a new concept of wind turbines evolved from conventional models.
GEDAYC is a new concept of wind turbines with blades and kites 300% more efficient than propeller models.
Thanks to its design and the wide range of wind that generates energy from weak to very strong winds.
The First Dynamic Spherical Harmonic Quantum Chemistry Visual Simulator
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
αScreen Fast and Cheap Bacteria Detection
Monika Weber, New Haven, CT
αScreen is the needed MEMS rapid pathogen screener for food-borne illnesses. It has a potential to improve health standards at the consumer level by increasing sensitivity, keeping the cost down and testing time short.
CONSUMER PRODUCTS CATEGORY
UVA+B Sunfreinds
Karin Edgett, Capitol Edge, Shahid Aslam, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Washington, DC
The UVA+B SunFriend© featuring NASA UV sensor technology will provide health conscious individuals with an effective and inexpensive UVA and UVB monitoring aid to receiving healthier sun exposure
ELECTRONICS CATEGORY
iPecs Tech
Michael Leydet, College Park Industries, Fraser, Michigan
The College Park Industries iPecs® (Intelligent Prosthetic Endo-Skeletal Component System) is a medical research device which will provide researchers a tool to accurately measure human locomotion or gait parameters on users of lower limb prostheses.
MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT CATEGORY
Hybrid Rotor Compressor for Natural Gas Extraction
Jeremy Pits, Pedro Santos, OsComp Systems, Boston, Massachusetts
By combining a novel rotary geometry with an innovative method for extracting heat from the system, OsComp's compressor 10% of the size of conventional machines and over 30% more efficient.
MEDICAL CATEGORY
XVIVO Organ Perfusion System
Chris Jaynes, Tom Taccini, Tim Klug, XVIVO Perfusion, Englewood, Colorado
The XVIVO Perfusion System (XPS) is a movile intensive care unit can repair damaged organs ex vivo (out of the donor's body) for successful transplantation into a waiting recipient.
SAFETY & SECURITY CATEGORY
AquaSonus Passive-Sonar Pool Alarm
William C. Roberts, Bob Hoenig, Paula Bailey, AquaSonus.com, Merrimack, New Hampshire
The AquaSonus Passive-Sonar System based on state-of-the-art digital signal processing; the use of low power and embedded microprocessors results in enhanced functionality, accuracy, reliability, and ease of installation and use.
SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY
TO:CMA Spherical Generator
Angel Francisco Martinez, Delia Beatriz Martinez, Trupti Bulbule, Cornell University, Laredo, Texas
The TO:CMA Spherical Generator creates copious amounts of clean electricity out of ocean waves at costs below all major existing renewable energy sources.
TRANSPORTATION CATEGORY
Dynamic Aero-Shroud Oscillating Jen
Rebecca Farr, Endwell Daso, Victor Pritchett, Ten-See Wang, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
This technology will enable new flight vehicle concepts and applications of supersonic and hypersonic flight.
CONSUMER PRODUCTS CATEGORY
BreezeRite Air Filtration Module
Rob Luchsinger, Pipe Creek, Texas
BreezeRite eliminates the dust build up on the top and forward edge of fan blades and allows the ease of cleaning by simply pulling out the filter housing and rinsing it off - or replacing it with new filters, instead of trying to vacuum, dust or wash down each fan blade.
MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT CATEGORY
Lift Pump
Eric Foy, Central Point, Oregon
The current invention comprises an axial flow impeller pump section located at the inlet end of the transfer hose, a power head at the flex-fitting located near the destination (tank or truck), and a flexible drive shaft running inside the transfer hose.
MEDICAL CATEGORY
IDEA™ Enhanced Pulse Oximetry
Rodrigo Teixeira, Alton J. Reich, Stephen F. Malin, Huntsville, Alabama
IDEA™ is an elegant confluence of recent advances in probabilistic inference, unsupervised machine learning and quantitative medicine.
SAFETY AND SECURITY CATEGORY
Digital Window Distributed Imaging Camera
Ellen Cargill, Peter Jones, Dennis Purcell, Boston MA
Scallop Imaging's seven mexapixel Digital Window D7-180 video surveillance camera is the first stand-alone computational imaging system, able to stream and record in full-color high resolution throughout its 180° field of view, without fisheye distortion.
SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY
Sustainable, Durable Bridges of the Future
Ibrahim Al-Khattat, Talacre, Wales United Kingdom
The LPSA (light prestressed segmented arch) engineering system reduces bridge building to assembling a kit of compact parts that can easily be manufactured and transported, resulting in considerable cost, energy, and capital investment savings
TRANSPORTATION CATEGORY
Regenerative Braking Bike Front Wheel
David Swain, Frank Maurer, Jason Moore, Albert Shih, Pipe Creek, Texas
The goal of the system is to ultimately make it a retrofit front-wheel for any bicycle using hydraulic pump motors that exist today and are over 94% efficient.
2003
Hideaway Tailgate with Slip Hinge
John H. McDonald III, Hanover, PA
Space-saving design allows a pickup truck’s tailgate to slide in under the truck bed after opening, making it easier to reach items in the bed.
Self-Stabilizing Table
Nicholas Oxley, New York, NY
This table is designed to automatically adjust to unpredictable floor conditions and rest in a perfectly stable state without wobbling.
Enhanced Audio Communications for First Responders
Rick Kaufman, Etrema Products USA and Brian Smith, FeONIC PLC, United Kingdom
This audio system based on a patented sound reproduction device turns a safety helmet into an audio speaker, allowing first responders to more clearly hear any audio message delivered over the radio without earphones.
Eclock Eccentric Locking Fastener
Robert Flesher, Apogee Designs, Baltimore, MD
This invention can be used as a tamperproof fastener or where torque setting is critical. It incorporates a single-use torque-set feature, making tool calibration unnecessary.
Massive Yet Tiny (MYT) Engine
Raphial Morgado, Angel Labs, Acampo, CA
Compared to existing internal combustion engines, the MYT™ Engine promises to achieve 40 times higher power to weight ratio, low parts count, low maintenance, and low pollution.
Grip Handle
Buck Albritton, Gear Max, Ashland, VA
This tool allows the user to carry heavier loads with a better grip, avoiding back injuries.
Air Inversion Fan
Charles Weber, Onalaska, WI
The Air Inversion Fan circulates cool air from the floor and redistributes it at chest level, resulting in a more even temperature and energy savings compared to traditional fans.
Vehicle Undercarriage Search System
Robert H. Frantz, Franklin Grey Patents, Oklahoma City, OK
The rapidly deployable, portable system uses a row of electronic cameras housed in a speed bump to detect explosives, contraband, weapons, and personnel concealed beneath vehicles.
Page 836 of 986
